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The previous section offered you a detailed overview of how to enter and edit the main objects you see in Gramps. This section continues with some objects you will encounter as part of sources, persons, ...

This page's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information. Please help improve the Gramps Wiki as a useful resource by updating it.

Name Editor

Fig. 5.24 Name Editor

Names are edited through the newly improved Name Editor dialog:

The top of the window allows entry of the type of name (e.g., Birth Name, Married Name, etc) from a dropdown list. Next are elements of the personal name most commonly grouped together as Given Name elements. Following the Given Name section is the Family Names section. At the bottom are elements allowing for customization of name sorting, dates for names, name sources and notes for names.

Tip

The tab labels reflect the presence of corresponding information: if the tab contains any data, its label appears boldface; if the tab has no data then its label appears regular (not bold).

Type

The Name Type dropdown list allows you to select the type of name being entered.

Given Names Section

The Given Names Section contains all parts of a personal name you can store with Gramps.

Given, The person's given names should all be entered here.

Call Name, The person's proper legal name that was used most commonly by the person should be entered here. For example, someone named John Raymond Smith who uses the name Raymond should have Raymond entered here. If this person uses Ray commonly, this should be entered as a nickname since Ray is not the proper legal name (see following). In Germany and some other places, it was custom to underline the callname among the different given names (see also here).

Title, The person's personal title, such as Doctor (or Dr.) can be entered here.

Suffix, The person's personal name suffix, such as Junior (Jr.) or III, should be entered here.

Nick Name, The person's nickname should be entered here. Nicknames include shortenings of proper legal names such as Greg for Gregory (cf. Call Name above).

Family Names Section

The Family Names Section contains the person's family name elements. Gramps allows for multiple family names as well as multiple kinds of family names.

A Prefix for the family name that is not used in sorting (such as "de" or "van").

Surname for the main portion of one's family name.

Connector often used in matronymic or patronymic naming schemes, such as dotter.

Origin indicating the type of family name this is and its derivation.

Family Nick Name for families commonly referred to using a more vernacular nick name.

Check the Private record icon in the top right corner to mark this name record as private. This will give you a chance to omit this name from being included in reports, if you choose so among the report generation options.

General tab

Options allow you to adjust specific grouping, sorting, and displaying properties of this name, as well as to provide the date corresponding to the name.

The Grouping field provides an alternative grouping node for a name in the person view, overriding the default grouping based on the family name. This may be necessary with similar family names that need to be grouped together -- for example Russian names Ivanov and Ivanova are considered the same, but difference in gender is reflected in different spelling. To enable typing into this field, check the Override check button.

People are displayed according to the name format given in the Preferences (the default).

Here you can make sure this person is displayed according to a custom name format (extra formats can be set in the Preferences).

The Sort as and Display as determine the manner in which the name appears in the People View and in the reports. The sort as allows you to override the name pattern set in the Gramps preferences in sorting of the name. For example, you suddenly have a branch of Swedish names with given and patronymic, but the rest of your database sorts names on Family name, Given. You can indicate here to sort this name always as Patronymic, Given.

Here you can make sure this person is sorted according to a custom name format (extra formats can be set in the Preferences).

The display as allows you to say how the name is displayed. You might for example want to sort a name in a specific manner, but still have the display of the name as set in your preferences.

The Person Tree view groups people under the primary surname. You can override this by setting here a group value. You will be asked if you want to group this person only, or all people with this specific primary surname.

The Date can provide information on the validity of this name -- use date spans as necessary. The edit date icon opens the Date Editor. Eg. for a Married Name, date the name is first used or marriage date.

Citations tab

The Citations tab displays information about sources and citations relevant to this name and controls allowing its modification. The central part displays the list of all such citations and sources stored in the database. The buttons + , Edit , and - allow you to correspondingly add, modify, and remove a citation to this name. Note that the Edit and - buttons become available only when a source reference is selected from the list.

Attributes

The top of the window shows the dialog title including the name of the person whose attribute is being edited. The central part of the window displays three notebook tabs containing different categories of available information. You can bring any tab to the top for viewing or editing by clicking on the appropriate tab heading. The bottom part has OK and Cancel buttons. Clicking the OK button at any time will apply all the changes made in all tabs and close the dialog window. Clicking the Cancel button at any time will close the window without applying any changes.

Tip

The tab labels reflect the presence of corresponding information: if the tab contains any data, its label appears boldface; if the tab has no data then its label appears regular (not bold).

The top tab allows editing of the most general information about the attribute:

The name of an Attribute you want to use. For example: Height (for a person), Weather on this Day (for an event), ... Use this to store snippets of information you collect and want to correctly link to sources. Attributes can be used for people, families, events and media.

The Value of the attribute. Eg. 1.8m, Sunny, or Blue eyes.

The information can be typed in the appropriate text entry fields. The attribute name can also be selected from available choices (if any) listed in the Attribute drop-down menu.

Note

Some predefined attributes are present because the are defined in the GEDCOM standard.

Check the Private record box to mark this attribute record as private. This will give you a chance to omit this attribute from being included in the reports, if you choose so among the report generation options.

Citations/Sources

The Citations tab displays information about citations and sources relevant to this attribute and controls allowing its modification. The central part displays the list of all such sources and citations references stored in the database. The buttons + , Edit , and - allow you to correspondingly add, modify, and remove a source reference to this attribute. Note that the Edit and - buttons become available only when a citation/source reference is selected from the list.

Note

The Note tab displays any notes concerning the attribute. To add a note or modify existing notes simply edit the text in the text entry field.

The Format option allows you to set the appearance of the note in the output (i.e. in reports and web pages). Selecting Flowed will replace all multiple spaces, tabs, and single end-of-line characters with single space in the output. The two consecutive new lines (i.e. an empty line) denote a new paragraph. Selecting Preformatted will honor all multiple spaces tabs, and new lines, so that the output will appear as it is entered into the text entry field.

Addresses

Fig. 5.26 Address editor

Addresses are edited through the following Address Editor dialog:

The top part shows the dialog title including the name of the person whose address is being edited. The central part of the window displays three notebook tabs containing different categories of available information. You can bring any tab to the top for viewing or editing by clicking on the appropriate tab heading. The bottom part has OK and Cancel buttons. Clicking the OK button at any time will apply all the changes made in all tabs and close the dialog window. Clicking the Cancel button at any time will close the window without applying any changes.

Tip

The tab labels reflect the presence of corresponding information: if the tab contains any data, its label appears boldface; if the tab has no data then its label appears regular (not bold).

It provides the following information categories of the address data:

The top of the window allows editing of the most general information about the address:

Date: Date at which the address is valid.

Street: The street of the address.

Locality: The locality name of the address.

City: The village or city of the address.

State/County: The state or county of the address in case a mail address must contain this.

Country: Country of the address.

ZIP/Postal code: Postal code.

Phone: Phone number linked to the address.

Note

Use Residence Event for genealogical address data.

The information can be typed in the appropriate text entry fields. Check the Private record box to mark this address record as private. This will give you a chance to omit this address from being included in reports, if you choose so among the report generation options.

Citations/Sources

The Citations tab displays information about sources relevant to this address and controls allowing its modification. The central part displays the list of all such sources and citations references stored in the database. The buttons + , Edit , and - allow you to correspondingly add, modify, and remove a citation/source reference to this address. Note that the Edit and - buttons become available only when a source reference is selected from the list.

Note

The Note tab displays any notes concerning the address. To add a note or modify existing notes simply edit the text in the text entry field.

The Format option allows you to set the appearance of the note in the output (i.e. in reports and web pages). Selecting Flowed will replace all multiple spaces, tabs, and single end-of-line characters with single space in the output. The two consecutive new lines (i.e. an empty line) denote a new paragraph. Selecting Preformatted will honor all multiple spaces tabs, and new lines, so that the output will appear as it is entered into the text entry field.

Merging records

Sometime several records in the database turn out to be describing the same object: same person, same place, or same citation/source. It could happen either when the data is entered twice by mistake, or when new information reveals that the two entries refer to the same person. It can also happen after importing GEDCOM obtained from a relative, whose database overlaps with your existing data.

Whenever you detect duplicate records, merging them a useful way of correcting the situation.

Tip

To make a merge, exactly two records have to be selected in the appropriate view (People View, Sources View, or Places View). This is accomplished by selecting one entry and then selecting another person while holding down the Ctrl key.

Merge People

Merging two people is done from the Edit menu.

Note

Merging people does not discard any information. The decisions you make during the merge only affect which data will become primary and which will become secondary for the resulting merged record.

Merge

Fig. 5.26 Merge people (regular view)

Fig. 5.27 Merge people (expanded view)

When exactly two people are selected, choose Edit ->Merge... to invoke the Merge dialog.

The dialog allows you to make a decision on whether or not the selected records should be merged. If you decide that the records should not be merged, despite similar names, you may click Cancel button to close the dialog without making any changes. Expanding the "Detailed Selection" and the "Context Information" fields on the bottom left (fig. 5.27) shows more information about the people to be merged.

If you decide to proceed with merging, select the appropriate Select radio button to specify the record to be used as the source of primary data, then click OK. The data from the other record will be kept as alternate data.

Specifically, all names from the other record will become alternate names of the merged record. Similarly, parents, spouses, and children of the other record will become alternate parents, spouses, and children of the merged record, and so on.